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Microsoft Office 2011 14.2.1 update released

Let’s try this again.

On Tuesday, Microsoft released its Microsoft Office 2011 14.2.1 update. The update, a 110 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and features:

– Document Connection support for SkyDrive documents is improved. This update enables users to view and access documents that are located in the root level of a SkyDrive folder.

– The drag-and-drop feature in Document Connection is added in Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). This update adds a drag-and-drop feature for files in Document Connection in Mac OS X 10.7.

– Upload functionality for SharePoint sites is improved. This update fixes an issue in which you receive the following error message when you upload a file to a SharePoint site: Upload Failed You must sign in to save your changes to the server.

– The Italian grammar checker is improved. This update fixes an issue in which the Italian grammar checker does not check a complete document.

– The German grammar checker is improved. This update fixes an issue in which the German grammar checker does not check a complete document when the document contains certain German sentences.

Improvements for Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2011:
– The database and the rebuild utility are improved. This update includes fixes that increase the robustness of the database and that improve the effectiveness of the rebuild utility. Outlook for Mac uses the Office database to store personal information, such as messages and contacts.

– This update fixes issues that cause database corruptions, instability, and crashes. This update also improves database transactions and the ability to recover from certain errors. If there is a problem within the database, Outlook for Mac starts the Database Utility, which tries to rebuild the database. After you install this update, the Database Utility recovers additional account information, such as shared resources and categories, and recovers from corruption scenarios. This update also adds the ability to cancel a database rebuild in Outlook for Mac.

– IMAP account sync that includes support for synchronizing with Gmail is improved. After you install this update, Outlook for Mac updates new messages in IMAP folders regularly. Additionally, Outlook for Mac users who use Gmail accounts can map folders, such as Drafts, Deleted Items, Sent Items, and Junk E-Mail, automatically.

– Outlook for Mac performance in key scenarios is improved. This update introduces several performance improvements in the following areas:
General responsiveness during syncing
Deleting multiple records
Displaying email message content
Sending email messages

– Exchange email message sync is improved. This update introduces a new sync model for Exchange. The new model enables Outlook for Mac to download an email message in parts. For example, Outlook for Mac first downloads and displays message text and then downloads large images and attachments.

– Downloading messages in parts reduces the load on the Exchange server and improves performance for the user.

– Support for calendar scheduling resources is improved. This update improves support for calendar scheduling resources and for free/busy comparison functionality in the Scheduling Assistant.

– Week numbers are added to the calendar display. This update adds a preference to enable the calendar to display week numbers.

– Distribution list expansion functionality is included. This update enables you to expand distribution lists into individual members when you add a distribution list in the To field or rest the mouse pointer on a distribution list.

Improvements for Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 2011:
– Functionality for pasting special hyperlinks is included. This update introduces functionality that enables you to paste special hyperlinks in PowerPoint.

– The list of co-authors is improved. This update fixes an issue in which you cannot see the list of co-authors in a presentation.

– Full Screen View in Lion is supported. This update supports Full Screen View in PowerPoint. Additionally, when you close slide show mode in PowerPoint, edit mode opens.

Improvements for Microsoft Word for Mac 2011:
– Printing PDF faxes is improved. This update fixes an issue in which Word cannot send .pdf files as faxes.

– The user information display in templates is improved. This update fixes an issue in which a Word template does not display a user’s name, address, telephone number, fax number, and email address when you view the template after the template is saved in .doc format.

Microsoft Office 2011 14.2.1 requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later to install and run and for the Service Pack 1 updater to have been previously installed.

If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

6 replies on “Microsoft Office 2011 14.2.1 update released”

complete garbage.. my machine is near unusable with outlook open..thanks MS

My earlier comment about rebuilding database… The only way to get the 14.2.1 update to stop telling you to rebuild the database is to ignore the prompts to do so, actually carry out the 14.2.1 “upgrade” installation and launch Outlook.  If you don’t do the install, you will keep getting prompted to rebuild the database, even if you haven’t yet done the install.  After installation, it will then rebuild and things will be OK.  Still having sync services crashes though.  And suddenly Photoshop and Adobe Bridge are crashing every time I use them.  Possibly related. I wish this “upgrade” hadn’t been sprung on me when I had no way of backing up first. (I was traveling internationally).

Other comments: when you try to do anything with the product (click in a field, for instance), you often have to wait 1-2 minutes for the beachball to stop spinning.  Not to mention features that went missing, such as ‘duplicate contact’ and ‘see the last message you sent to this person.’  Try to select all of the information in a contact, to paste into another document.  No – you have to copy the fields one at a time or simply retype (faster).  This release had no QA, it seems.  

If I didn’t have a decade invested in this product and its predecessors (300k messages in my archive), I wouldn’t be using this product. Would be nice if there were a migration utility…

If we’re lucky, someone at MSFT might see these complaints.  Not holding breath.

14.2.1 is a complete TURD. Screwed all installations of Outlook on OS X at our office. DO NOT INSTALL this update if you use Outlook.

Microsoft’s QA is a joke.

screwed up sync services between outlook and address book and ical on both my and my wife’s macs, which then messed up my iphone.  Really pissed off!!!

This pops up on my screen every 10 seconds or so.  There is no way to cancel or quit.  “There is a problem with the Office database. To use the database, you must rebuild it using the Database Utility.”   Clicking rebuild starts the process but then it starts to throw up error messages.  AVOID.  This “upgrade” is another Microsoft ploy to get Mac users over to Windows.

i am really worried about this release. i did 14.2.0 and lost two days fixing and reverting to 14.0 then to 14.1. are people seeing any issues? thanks

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